please excuse my sometimes weak English, it is not my mother language.

Es tut mir Leid, dass ich kann nicht meine Traueme auf Deutsch besser erklaren! Ich studierte es auf der Uni als Nebenfach, aber habe viel vergessen.

"ancient pothos ivy plants": what does pothos mean? Didn't find it anywhere.

It's a kind of ivy often grown in houses here. Also called Philodendron. http://www.vanderlaans.com/vanpoth.htm the one in my dream was very stretched out, with more vine than leaves (this happens when they don't get enough light.)

"Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina."

"Then he hid himself within the refining fires." From Dante's Inferno, when Virgil leaves Dante back at the front gate of Hell. Elliott uses it at the very end of his "The Wasteland."

So, the NovaDreamer did work very well for you. Did you do the course, available at LI? How did you learn to see the cues and get lucid?

Yes, it's worked very well for me. I didn't do the entire course, although I read through it. I have done lots of reality-check practice and other things out of LaBerge's books, so I was apparently ready to recognize the light cues. Usually they just show up like they do when I'm awake with my eyes closed... flashes of light in front of my eyes. Sometimes they get converted within the dream.

How did you come to LDing at all?

I heard about it during High School, but didn't ever get very far when I tried it then. I started again about two years ago, and did much better. I've always been fascinated with dreams and the dreaming world.

When is your best time to get lucid? Do you have personal, special tricks?

I wake up early because my partner has to go to work earlier than I do. I spend a while awake, reading emails and LD forums, then go back to bed in a different room (he's still up dressing and such) and that's where I have the most LD's. I have found that to get back to sleep is sometimes difficult, and if I hyperventilate just a little (take several deep breaths in a row with no pause) and then tense my whole body then release, it relaxes me neatly into sleep. That's my only real "trick."

Do you have a waking physical reality LD - >necklace?

Not yet, but I plan to. The image of it was very clear in my mind in the dream, and I've begun to hunt for a real-life item to use for that. Since so much of the process is mental, just the idea that it will help, often helps. I've used colored candies, swallowed whole like pills, to influence my dreams... I spent a while thinking about what each kind was good for, and my partner made medicine bottles with fancy labels describing what each kind does.

Am I asking too much?

Not at all! I love talking about it... the more time I spend thinking about it, the further it works itself into my mind.

Thanks for all your in-depth questions, and I look forward to hearing from you again.

Michael

Michael,

thanks for prompt reply, there is still so much to read through, enough for lives and lives, if it is only for the outstanding works. Light played an important role in your LD, didn't it?

Looking forward to more lucid dream posts of yours (and of mine...)

Towards more light

Yours Ralf

Greetings, Michael!

Delighted to have you join us here. And thank you for your wonderfully detailed dream reports. I must say that several of the images gave me a wonderfully strange sensation -- and I'll explain why.

In just a couple of weeks, enthusiastic oneironauts from various countries will be attending LI's "Dreaming & Awakening Retreat". The very dreamlike setting at Kalani Retreat Center on the Big Island of Hawaii muchwhat resembles certain aspects mentioned in your dream reports.

First, you mentioned "Summer Camp": Do you know that the unofficial name for the "Dreaming & Awakening Retreat" is "DreamCamp"? We began calling it that in earlier years when the retreats were offered only during the summertime. A kind of Lucid Dreamer's Summer Camp, if you will. Clothing at camp is casual, by the way. ;)

And then there's:

• The room with no furniture. The lecture sessions at Kalani are held in a room that has barely any furniture -- aside from a couple of rattan couches, we mostly sit on floor mats with backrests.

• And your lizard companion. Gekkos abound in Hawaii and have been known to sit in on Stephen's presentations.

• And the garden tub. There's the hot springs pool where we'll all go for an evening dip. If you can imagine, a pool of perfectly warm, clear water, the surface of which is dotted with the bobbing heads of oneironauts spouting lucid dreamtalk 'neath that old Hawaiian moon. 'Tis a site to behold!

Perhaps your dream is precognitive? Perhaps your lucid dream necklace is in Hawaii? Perhaps you should join us? If you do come along, I expect you'll be in for a good jolt of dreamy deja vu. ;)

Aloha to all! Keelin

PS: Anyone who's interested in attending the retreat, please see http://www.lucidity.com/DAAK02/index.html for details. We might be able to accommodate a couple more dreamers, but space is limited.

Ralf,

Yes, light always makes a significant impression on me. I'm an artist, and I think that training influences the way I interpret my dream world some times. I notice things like light and color often.

This morning's dream:

20021016, 6:45 AM: The California Tea Garden LUCID

Note: my desired lucid adventure for the past couple of nights was to visit an imaginary garden I use for meditation. I didn't quite make it, but I still consider this a successful incubation.

This dream started oddly. It seemed to me that I was taking an exceptionally long time to get to sleep, and I kept wondering if I had actually fallen asleep and this was just a false awakening dream. But as I would listen to the house noise, I could hear the fan clearly even through my ear plugs, and usually in dreams I don't. The Nova Dreamer mask went off once while I was waiting to doze off, which means that I had been lying there for at least 20 minutes, because I set it for that amount of delay.

After a while, I realize that I'm not hearing the fan any more, and the house seems very quiet. So I decide that I must have fallen asleep. I sit up, hoping that I'm really dreaming. It's pitch dark in here. I sort of half-feel my way to the kitchen; it seems like everything is a very exact replica of the house, which makes me really wonder if I'm just awake. I'm becoming gradually able to see just a little bit, as if it were dawning slowly outside. I get into the cabinet above the microwave and pull down one of the plastic glasses and fill it halfway with water from the front of the refrigerator. I could see the glasses in the cabinet, but they were very shadowy and dim. I remark to myself on the quality of the light, and how it's getting a little less dark in here. As I drink the water, which is nice and cold, I wonder to myself if I really should be drinking in a dream, if the sensation of the cold water going down my throat is going to be too intense and wake me. I'm feeling more and more secure that this is a dream, although I haven't done any real state testing.

I go outside, but it's a different back yard than any I've ever been in. It's green grass all the way back to a fence, and behind the fence seems to be a big drainage bayou. There is a wide board in the corner of the fence, probably two and a half feet across and about four feet tall. I know that I can use this as a doorway, but it takes special handling. This part of the dream seems a little more dream-directed and less lucid, because I don't know where I got this whole routine. I knock twice on the door, then open it from the right hand side and step through it into another neighbor's yard. Then, I knock twice again, but open it from the left-hand side (it moves like the door in the oubliette in Labyrinth, as if hinged on both sides for different places) and then I'm back into my original back yard. Then I knock once, or slap my palm flat on it once, and lift the door up from the bottom (like it's hinged on top) and then step through... and I'm in the neighbor's back yard again, which is not where I wanted to be. I go through the routine again, but reversing the sides I use to open it from, right first, into the neighbor's back yard, then left, back into my own back yard. There is a little black and white goat here with me, and he keeps trying to get out under my feet; I have to scoop him back up and shove him through the door, then quickly squeeze through myself. Once back in my own yard, I slap the door and lift it up from the bottom, and this time when I step through, I am in a sparsely finished living room, grayish beige walls with stark wooden furniture and a black lamp with an ecru shade. I say, "That's more like it!" and quickly move on, because this isn't where I wanted to be, just a way to get out of the ordinary world.

I take off down the margin of the drainage bayou. I go into a shop, and I talk to a woman there, trying to find my way to the garden. She is there with another woman, and neither of them seems to think that the garden is close by enough for me to want to go there. I insist that I'm going there, and one of them finally starts explaining to me which direction it is. This segment of the dream is not particularly vivid. The woman in the shop has a little dog, like a Chihuahua, who tries to escape as I go out the door, and I catch him and hand him back to her. One of the women is pointing, trying to explain which direction the garden is, and it seems like it's quite some ways, but I can't tell if it's within the city or if it's out in the country.

I take off into the air flying. I am swimming through the air breast-stroke style, and I am marveling at how good it feels to be flying. The air is clear and fresh, and I am flying through an area with city streets and high skinny pine trees. There are people on the streets walking their dogs, playing with kids, and jogging; they don't seem to notice or care that I'm flying through the air above their heads. I am about 15 - 20 feet off the ground. I notice that it's becoming a little warm as I fly along, from the sunlight hitting me. I think to myself that this is Southern California, and what I was more in the mood for was the cool breezes and fog of Northern California. I close my eyes as I'm swimming and say to myself, "Northern California, Northern California," but when I open my eyes, I'm still in the same place with the same warm air. Suddenly, the Nova Dreamer lights flash in my eyes, and I am temporarily blinded. I am in a very dark space, it seems like the dream imagery is fading, but I decide that if I just maintain my swimming motion, and concentrate on the feel of my dream body moving, I will stay lucid and stay dreaming. It works; when I regain visual contact to the dream, I'm still flying over city streets, although now it looks like I'm closer to the edge of town.

I fly along, looking at the trees and the landscaping, looking for the garden. I realize that it's likely to be much further away, out in the country somewhere, so I decide I need to adopt a faster, higher-altitude flight. I change from the breast stroke style to a Superman style, putting both hands out in front of me, one lapped over the other, with the fingers pointing forward. I rise up higher into the air, probably a couple hundred feet or so, and zoom across the landscape. I feel jet-propelled; it requires no apparent effort on my part to fly, other than concentrating. I fly over lots of fields and semi-wooded areas, some with houses, some just empty fields. I keep looking for a garden area, but not seeing it. I travel for quite a ways, looking at the colorful green fields and the trees, which are showing some fall coloring in reds and oranges. I finally decide that I need to get to the garden soon, and I decide that it's going to be coming up ahead of me. I see something coming up that looks more like it, and I slow down and return to a swimming flying style, and then land.

I land in front of a building in front of a big garden area. The sign in front of the building says "Tea Garden" and it is situated diagonally to the streets, so that it's facing the corner point and the parking lot is a triangle. The parking areas are full of landscaping, with lots of low annual color plants like begonias and impatiens. I think that it ought to have more variety of plants, especially some taller plants, and when I look away and look back, there are some blood-red tall hollyhocks, but only a few. I think to myself that if I kept at it, I could make it as lush as what I was hoping to see, but I'd have to spend the whole dream landscaping, and I'd rather explore.

I go inside. It looks almost like this is a maintenance building for the gardeners; it has counters with a sink, a couple of tables, and a bunch of cabinets. There is a woman caretaker in here. She has very short spiky silvery-brown hair, and high cheekbones. She's thin in a sort of elfin elegant way. She reminds me a little of Roxanne S. She's wearing a tunic-style sweater in a gray-green sage color, and it is oversized on her so that it sort of drapes loosely. She is very graceful when she moves, and seems very nice to me. I tell her that I want to tour the gardens, and she explains that I'd better hurry, because they'll be closing soon.

She is crumbling some sort of brown briquets into a bowl on the counter near the sink. She says, "This isn't really fiber-berry tea; it's really pretty good." She moves across the room, and I go to where she had been, and look into the bowl. The briquets are the little peat pellets that you start seeds in, and some of them have little grass plants growing out of them, just three or four blades. Some of the briquets are broken in half at random angles, others are crumbled up. I say, "That's what it looks like," meaning fiber-berry tea. I tell her that I'm here dreaming, and that I'm here visiting in the dream; I say it totally matter-of-factly, as I would say that I'm here on vacation. She laughs, not as if she doesn't believe me, but as if the way I said it struck her funny. I go on to explain that I'm actually at home sleeping right now. I explain that I usually wake up at one, two-thirty, four, and then 5:15, when I go into the other room to sleep, and that's where my real body is now. She seems amused with me. She moves to a table, and takes something out of a cabinet on the wall - the wall is all cabinets, with big doors and little handles. She is working with whatever she got out of the cabinet, and I don't look at it enough to see what it is. I get the impression that there's an additional person here, although I don't see anyone. The caretaker says that she had a nap this morning, and I tell her that I did too... I'm having one now, in fact! She laughs.

I go outside to tour the gardens. I fly around it, and I'm disappointed to find that most of the garden areas are hillside flower beds along a curving hilly path. I was hoping that more of them would be profuse meadows of flowers and ornate architecture like fountains and such. I was really hoping to see the meditation garden from my visualizations, but I decide to enjoy the garden as I see it. Most of the plants are fairly low, and the majority of them are tropical succulents, euphorbias and the cacti. Some of them have interesting flowers that I haven't seen before, and I hover over them to look closely.

There are a lot of people here. I wish they weren't here, because it makes it seem odd for me to be flying around, but they don't seem to notice me. I see one sexy jogger who has stopped to stretch or tie his shoes; I can see the muscles flexing in his bent-over behind through his thin white shorts, and he smiles at me as I pass, but I decide I don't want to change the dream to something sexual, because I'm enjoying flying so much. I continue to fly along, taking in all the flowers, and watching all the people walking, running, and playing around with their kids. The Nova Dreamer lights go off again, and I'm pleased because I know that means I made it through at least a second run of the delay timer. However, it knocks me too far out of the dream consciousness, and I find myself lying awake in bed. end

Dear Michael!

Thanks again for an intriguing dream report. You seem to be perfect in prolonging and navigating and of course in enjoying the dream. Especially the moment when you decided not to change the gardens any longer, but to explore, I do appreciate. It seems to me your world is very rich all in all, dreaming and waking. I thought about that, yesterday and decided to care for all my senses, as I took a 1 1/2 hours walk, at the channel, in a school garden, touching, smelling the trees and flowers, listening to the birds. Seing the change of light during sunset. That felt fine. And I did focus on details even more, as I wrote down my dreams - something I have learned to appreciate in the run of the ASD psiberdreaming conference, anyway. I had some DSA2 dreams, that is close to lucidity, this morning. I wasn't up long enough to be more alert in dreams. But I'm getting closer, trying new approaches and always look for inspirations, like by your dreams.

Please keep us updated on your progress!!

Yours Ralf

Dream 20021019, 7:10 AM: Brian's Whale and the Go Cards

[NOTE: my dream intent was to visit Bear and Eagle in the Mountains and play in the snow.]

I am over at Brian's house (Lobo) and I'm here to bring him something. I'm not sure what. I knock, although the door is open; his Dad is sitting in a recliner chair in the living room which is not far from the door, and tells me to come on in. There are a couple of other people here now as well; I think they're all members of his family. His Dad explains to me that Brian's not home, but I could save them all some trouble by taking back this battery they have at the house. He starts getting everyone to give me some money; I think there is some fee for the place to take the battery back, and they're splitting the cost. I feel vaguely uncomfortable, as if this is something I shouldn't be doing, or taking the battery could be risky. It seems like they're giving me a lot more money than necessary, too.

Then, I walk down the hallway by the door just a little, and I see through the side-light window that there are some green lizards on a brilliant red ceramic planter or bowl. I remark that they are unusual looking; they are brighter green than the anoles that I grew up with, and they are more sturdy and thick through the body. There are two, maybe more. I look at them carefully, and realize that they're a kind I've never seen before. I realize that I'm dreaming, and become lucid.

I continue on down the hallway, and go past an opening that leads out onto a back porch. Looking out there, I realize that what I thought at first was an atrium is actually a HUGE tank full of water, and there is a whale in it. I think at first that it is an orca, but then it comes toward us and I realize how big it is, and that it's a Right Whale or a Gray. I want to go into the tank and play with it, and I realize that I can go through the glass, because I'm dreaming. I pass through the glass with some resistance, and I am surprised that I don't feel the pressure of all that water on me. I feel like I'm floating in air. The whale comes up from below and pushes me upward like the ones do at Sea World, and I fly into the air a little bit at the end, and land back in the water. I go back through the glass of the tank, and on into the dining room. As I pass through the glass again, I notice that my fingers go through last; I hold them above my head as I go through, and a little behind me. I look up and see the marks of where my fingers were, like dimples in the glass, and they heal up and smooth as I watch them. I'm clean and dry when I get out, like the water all stayed in the tank.

We go into the dining room, and sit down around a big dining table. The woman, whom I assume is Brian's mom, is pouring all kinds of stuff into a bowl and eating it - I think everyone but me is eating, but she's the one I watch. She starts with cereal, then cottage cheese (and I think, I could have some cottage cheese - probably the only thing there I could eat) then something that looks like Ore-Ida potato wedges out of a bag, still steaming with frost from the freezer. She is eating as she goes, sort of alternating between pouring stuff into the bowl and eating. It looks kind of gross. She has chin-length blond hair, and seems very friendly. The Dad and at least one other family member are also sitting at the table, but I don't notice faces as much. I explain that I'm here in a dream, that I'm really at home sleeping while I visit. They nod, in an "isn't that nice" sort of way, and keep right on with their dining. I mention again that I'm dreaming, but they obviously don't want to talk about that, so I let the subject drop. I ask how long they've had the whale - the Dad says that they just got it, just a few minutes ago, because they knew I was going to be coming over. I tell them that was awfully nice of them, and I really enjoyed being in the tank with it.

I explain that I have to go and visit Bear and Eagle. I think I have a note of some sort to remind me of this, but I don't recall it clearly. I stand up, and am thanking them for inviting me in and letting me swim with their whale, then I wake up. I walk down the hallway, and out the door, and I look and see the reflection of a young man with long brownish hair in the glass of the window beside the door. He reminds me of the long-haired guy I saw in a locker room in a dream a few weeks ago. I look down, and see the green lizards, and realize that I'm still dreaming. I go back inside, and I'm doing a little dance, hopping from foot to foot, saying, "I'm Still Dream-Ing! I'm-Still-Dream-Ing!" I feel very excited, because I thought the dream was over. The Nova Dreamer lights flash, and this only serves to confirm that I'm still dreaming. I know they flashed earlier, but I don't remember when.

I want to go to the Mountain and see Bear and Eagle now. The house is empty except for me; I think everyone else disappeared when I had the false awakening. I realize that I am far from the mountains, and I need to find a portal to get there, or at least get closer. I start looking around and find a closet door. I sketch an image of the mountain with Bear and Eagle on the door with my finger tip, and open the door; unfortunately, it's full of stuff, so much so that stuff is spilling out when I open the door. I reach out and take hold of one fabric book bag, and rub it between my fingers to test and make sure it's really there.

I find another closet door; this one is only half-height, and below it is an air conditioner vent. I open it, and it's full of dishes; I try to remember the opening sequence that worked on the fence panel the other day, and try opening it in the opposite direction, but it's still full of the same dishes. Then I look up and see another door next to the one I'm working with that says, "Open This." I do, and inside is a bunch of printed material, mostly white booklets that remind me of appliance manuals. I try to read one of them, and when I open it up, it is hard for me to focus on the text. After significant effort, I see the words "CAVALON DREAMS" across the top of the first page, in a wide pretty typeface. The paper is cream, and the type is sepia.

I keep looking through the stuff in this cabinet. I am looking for a Go Card - I know that if I can find just the right picture of Bear and Eagle and the Mountain, I'll be able to enter the picture and go there. As I look through the cabinet, there are a couple of little compartments inside of the cabinet that flip open, and seem to just have more paper stuff inside. Then, I find some magazines wrapped in clear plastic. They are all about dreaming, and the front covers look like paintings of surreal scenes. I look at one that has a picture of a woman and an alien on the front, then another that has a scene on the front that I don't focus on mostly, just on a tree in the background. I think that it's close to what I need, and there will be another illustration inside that I can use as a Go Card. I have an image of what the "real" Go Cards would look like; they're large pasteboard squares with landscape scenes on them, and I know that they are a dream tool that I should have because they are so useful. The Nova Dreamer lights flash again, and this time I wake on up.

Is lucid dream space really 3D?

Look at a distant object while awake then hold an index finger in the line of view while maintaining focus on the object. You see two images of the finger because parallax is that set for the distant object. Close one eye and one of the images will disappear.

It occurred to me to see if this same phenomenon occurred in an LD. I figured that if it did not then the lucid dream scene is equivalent to looking at a very close 2D image, even when this includes the hand held in front of you.....don't know if I'm making sense.

"....I am in my garden. I see a bush with pink flowers about 4 metres away. I focus on one flower and raise my finger. I see two fingers. I close one eye and one of the fingers disappears...."

I was excited when I awoke for I thought this was evidence that lucid dreamworld is kind of like a real 3D place. But then I reflected, well perhaps it is just that my brain is creating the 2D pictures that I see when I am awake ????

Hi, Owen

You might want to look at this discussion in regard to your dream and question on 2d / 3d and dream perception in general:

http://dreamtalk.hypermart.net/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=4&TID=4696&SID=12010

find the resource paper at:

http://www.asdreams.org/journal/articles/7-3_gillespie.htm

Would have posted you private, but there is no email in your profile.

Yours Ralf

P.S. Owen, you have to go to the last few messages to get to the 3d thing. Posting your dream there would be easy and welcome, I think

Owen:

You're absolutely right ' your mind was supplying exactly the image you expected, and no more.

Your physical eyes, and their binocular vision, are not responsible for any images you create in a dream. So, your finger test is definitely biased by your expectations.

A fun experiment would be to try the reverse next time you're lucid. When you hold up one finger, try to see one finger without closing an eye, in spite of your expectations. I bet you can! (and kudos to you for being able to try this lucidly in the first place).

What all this really means is that, as far as we know, dream space is "no-D." Since it is created from your perceptions, expectations, memories, and fantasies, but nothing physical, dream space occupies as many ' or as few ' dimensions as your mind cares to fathom. Dimension, and any other physical attributes, in dreams is limited only by your expectations, and imagination, if you're lucid.

That's why it's so much fun!

Peter

Alas, after a long pause I had a lucid dream last night. I hate that NovaDreamer! :-)

I had a very hard time to go to sleep. The first cue went off before I slept. The second one awoke me. That was about 2 in the night. I got up, started my computer and read a few lucid dreams before going to bed again. This time I slept until morning and the ND said it had cued me 13 times without me noticing anything. So, I ripped the ruddy thing off and went to sleep again.

I had some very vivid non-lucid dreams, where (as usual with me) I encountered a few dreamsights, which should have gotten my attention but didn´t. In my dreams I always take everything in my stride how atrociously weird it may be.

Then I was walking through a lot of high rise buildings, going in one end, going through rooms with people working in them and out again. Always sort of furtively, because I knew I didn´t belong there.

At the end I came out on a large lucious meadow, falling softly down to a big river maeandering somewhere in the background. I knew it was the river Elbe somewhere downstream from Hamburg. As I was walking over this more than green meadow, I suddenly realised that I was dreaming. No dreamsight, no cue, no nothing. To test this I jumped in the air and I was flying. At first it was kind of hard work, like swimming, but soon it got easier and very satifying. At the very beginning I decided not to try sex (I would have liked to), because that always awakes me. I soared up and down, over and through trees, swooshing as I came down. Somewhere I think I talked to somebody, but my memory fails me. Then it started to rain and I got wet flying with the drops all around me. I think a short time I had a raincoat on, but that's sort of hazy too. Anyway, the rain stopped and I was flying over and along some terraces, where people were sitting in what seamed to be garden cafés. They saw me flying but didn´t react at all.

Then I decided to try sex anyway. And there was this nice looking girl sitting at one of the tables. I swooped down and sure enough my heart started beating so hard that I (as always before) woke up.

When my heart after some time eased off I tried to go back to that dream but couldn't.

Jan

Having read my post once more, I would like to explain what I said about my not realising dreamsights. I give some examples:

Through the window I had seen a car with foreign licence plates, but when I tried to show them to somebody, they had changed to normal ones.

I was lying in bed with my legs half drawn up under the cover. Suddenly there appeared a glass half full of beer and I could just catch it between my legs before it spilled all over the bed.

I was standing on a street between high buildings. Looking up I saw smoke coming out of a window high up. Thick and brown it was billowing out of the yellow brick. I rushed into a nearby house, came into a telefone exchange and yelled at the girls to call the fire brigade and tell them to bring their longest ladder. The girl who did that had a harelip and a broken nose. So what she said was completely un-understandable, it was not even a language.

I was standing at a street vendors stand holding a golden ten-crown coin in my hand. When a crony appeared at the window, I gave her the coin hoping that it would be enough and told her that I wanted to buy an egg, a tomato and a bunch of radishes. The radishes were lying to the left of me behind glass. They had green leaves and were looking fresh, red and delicious, but when the old woman brought them, they were tiny, shriveled, without leaves and there was salt all over them.

These four scenes I realised in my dreams as being weird and unnormal but they didn't trigger my dreamselv to understand that I was dreaming. The weirdest things in my dreams I accept, even when I notice that they are weird and unnatural. And that's one of my problems since I started in 1999. Only one of my lucid dreams has ever been triggered by anything out of the natural. I always suddenly just know, that I'm dreaming - as I did last night. Why can't I what youall can.

A funny thing: The girl with the harelip came right out of a book I was reading yesterday evening.

Jan

Hallo Jan!

With me it's the same concerning dreamsigns. I usually just know that I am dreaming, but maybe this depends on how often you remember yourself during waking-life if this is a dream or not... I'm "practising" very few at the moment, and so I hardly notice any dreamsigns at all in a dream. Maybe you should imagine more unnatural, weird things during your day ;)

Have a nice weekend,

Natalie

Ralf, thanks for the links. There's a lot of interesting stuff there, but I cannot say that I understand it all.

Peter, I'll try your experiment in due course and report back.

I have one comment though. The waking 3D visual world we perceive arises out of electrical and chemical processes in the brain. It all happens in there in the brain. (I believe that an external world exists however!!) Those same or similar processes could be activated in an LD, thus the 3Dness of the lucid world could mirror quite closely that of the perceived waking world. It would mean that 3D perceptions could exist in both worlds. I agree however that imagination could somehow override everything in the lucid world.

Owen

Hallo, Natalie!

It's as you say, one should try to find dreamsigns in ones daily life, and that's just what my old head doesn't remember to do! Somebody wrote that he/she is thinking 'lucid dreaming' all day. It seems quite logical that this would flood over into your dreams, just as my harelipped girl. But I nearly never think of it before evening.

But tomorrow I fly to Hawaii and attend the seminar there. I hope that I get a kick somewhere to make me more efficient in lucid dreaming.

Halt' mir die Daumen.

Jan

Sind ja doch einige Landsleute hier ;) Ich staune!

Maybe you should hide little notes which remember you of doing reality checks - put them everywhere!!

Enjoy your time up in Hawaii! drückt dir die Daumen

Natalie

I think this one was extra-cool because of the Daylight Savings Time change - I was able to "sleep in" an hour without the clock even noticing!

Dream 20021028, 4:30 AM: "This is Dreamland!"

This dream starts out with me and one companion. We are flying over this place that seems like a computer simulated landscape; it's very cartoon-like, with trees and little shaped hills of varying shades of green. I know that it's a dream landscape; I spend the entirety of the dream from this point forward in a low level of lucidity, with occasional higher peaks.

We begin exploring this area. It seems like the entire place is only landscape, and most of it seems sort of sketched in, as if it will be finished out later with more detail. Trees are just sort of blobs from above, and the hills are sort of regular and appear like they were manufactured on some sort of grid, like if you looked long enough you could catch them repeating.

We go down closer, and I think that if I get far enough down, I ought to be able to land, or at least explore the surface regions. It seems as if we split up and explore, because I remember calling to my companion and saying, "Hey, come check this out!" I find an area that seems like it's down amongst trees, or almost like being in a kelp forest. Light filters down from above. Everything is only patterns of light and dark, though - it's as if the area has been reduced to its highest and lowest lights, with no details. I see only patterns of light, no trees or anything. It is darkly colored, lots of greens and blacks and browns, with some oranges and yellows in the lit areas.

There is a brief gap in my memory. Then, the landscape seems to have solidified, and now I have two companions instead of just the one. We are walking around in this big building, which appears to be built out of dark gray stone. I see a bunch of big industrial buckets; they remind me of the stuff that I get my bulk oils in, large white buckets with lids and handles, with labels around the front. I walk around a corner, and I see my companions waiting in a long line. I tell them about the buckets, and explain that "The amount of Nazism that will come from them is plenty to kill us all." They get kind of freaked out. I don't know what they're waiting in line for. I explain that I have an idea to get us out of here; I'm going to try spinning.

I realize that if I spin and they are left here, it could go badly for them; I feel close to both of them, and want to bring them along with me. So I explain that I'm going to stand between them and spin, and when I stop I will put out my hands, and they must grab on to them, and then I'll open my eyes and the scene will change. I close my eyes and spin, and then slow to a stop and put out my hands. Each hand gets grabbed, and I know that they are with me, and I open my eyes. The group of people in the line is gone, and the room has changed somewhat. We decide that we want to see how to get out of this building (it seems kind of boring - I want to see the world above, it seems we are underground) and so we start running along looking for stairs. We find some, and go up several short flights until we come out on the surface. There is a young man and an older woman here too - they have just come out of the underground as well, and they stop and sit on a park bench. He has his shirt off, and is breathing hard as if he ran a long ways. I think for a moment that he's cute, but just walk on. We walk along a wide, landscaped pathway, lined by high bushes on each side. The path winds down toward a big lake, and looking over the lake, I see... a pteranodon (from last week's dream, "Alto Rialto"). I realize that we're in Dreamland, and I feel very excited. I point to the pteranodon, and tell the group that is with me, "We're in Dreamland!" Without my noticing, the two guys have somehow become about half a dozen or maybe more people, with a couple of old women, and I don't remember the particulars of the others. There are big fishes and such in the water, too, and I know that it can be dangerous to be out in it without a boat.

The space that we're in seems contradictory. Part of the time, it seems like we're standing by the edge of the lake, with open sky above. Other parts, it seems like we're under a shelter with no walls, other parts still it seems like we're inside a building. I start explaining to the people how to interact and get along in Dreamland. I feel very excited through the whole talk, partly because we can have so many adventures here, and partly because I recognized dream elements from the prior dream, and that almost never happens for me. I explain to the group that it's best for them not to get separated from their partners. One older woman who seems to have been with me in a previous dream pipes up, saying this is important. She has a little brown bottle that I think is medicine. I then explain that they need to watch their imagination - since this is Dreamland, imagination can make things happen. "If you start thinking that the murder is behind the pillar..." and then I realize that I probably shouldn't have used that example, because I know they are all visualizing that now. I have an image of what appear to be waiters moving forward in a line under water; they have big napkins in front of them, held out in one hand. I hear a rumbling sound, and then look to my left where it's coming from, and there is a big sliding pocket door there. I slide it open, and it's a big dining room with large wooden tables. It looks like the wait staff have just begun to set it for a party; the tables are arranged, but have no silverware or plates. I wake up (for real), my heart pounding with excitement.

See you in Dreamland... Michael

Hi, Michael!!

"So I explain that I'm going to stand between them and spin, and when I stop I will put out my hands, and they must grab on to them, and then I'll open my eyes and the scene will change. I close my eyes and spin, and then slow to a stop and put out my hands. Each hand gets grabbed, and I know that they are with me, and I open my eyes."

Wow, fascinating example of the use of spinning. Very instructive is the way you interact with dreamcharacters at all, as in the following quote:

"We decide that we want to see how to get out of this building"

How exactly happened: WE decide?

What do you think, is the role of your companions and the changing number of them?

"There are big fishes and such in the water, too, and I know that it can be dangerous to be out in it without a boat." I would advise that, too. Ever heard of leiopleurodon? (was shown in this BBC documentary) Used to hunt sharks and even small allosaurus, ca 25m long beast of a reptil!!!

Thanks again for sharing dreams. I find them very instructive, good examples of how to be in a dream.

Have you ever done something like the light and mirror experiment in your LDs?

Yours Ralf

Ralf,

Thanks for your comments! I always find that your questions help me find out more about my dreaming; it's still pretty new for me.

How exactly happened: WE decide?

I don't remember a group conversation about what we ought to be doing, but I don't get the feeling that it's just me walking out and the rest of them happen to tag along. Some of my more-lucid dreams it seems like I am acting more as a leader or on my own, and more of the lower-level lucid dreams (where I'm aware, but don't have as much dream control) there are more interactions with my dream "friends." They change the course of events and things like that, and I feel like I'm just another character.

What do you think, is the role of your companions and the changing number of them?

I really don't know about that. It has shown up in a few of my dreams recently. I think part of it may be a schema of increasing numbers; it seems like every time I turn around, there are more of them!

See you in Dremland - Michael

Michael

Thanks for details.

I think of that it somehow shows, that the less lucid we are, the more there may be a tendency to "split up" in sub - egos. At least I sometimes speculated on that, because in my dreams people vanished, when I got lucid. And my lucidity is mostly very explicit, I seem to tend to act / feel controlling. Joy, for example, said it is not so for her. She is quite lucid and people don't vanish. But maybe she is not so controlling. Don't know what to make of that. I'll see.

Hope to see you, too!

Ralf

Had my first lucid dream in a long time last night, and I hope it's ok if i share it with you all.

I was in dorm in Washington State, at a university I attended last year, to see my girlfriend Laura. The time setting was this coming Christmas and my current classmate Frank had for some reason joined me. Looking at him, I realized that we never did finish our exam for the ongoing semester in Norway and just as panic started to work out some elaborate and stressful dream scheme for getting me back home in time to take the exam, I realized I was dreaming. I didn't bother to tell Frank since I know from experience that my dream characters are very unwilling to accept this notion. Instead I told him we should run outside so I could start flying before the REM period ended cause I somehow knew (or thought I knew) that this was the night's first dream. When we got outside to the campus area Frank told me that he didn't consider flying a very good idea. Not listening to him a spread my arms out, jumped and slowly levitated. "Right, I'm off then" said Frank, as if he was offended I didn't take his advice, and walked away. The dream scene started to fade and for the first time I decided not to try any of my usual prolonging techniques (like spinning, looking at my hands or the ground or crawling) since they never seem to work. Instead I just accepted the fact (or dream fact) that the REM period was ending and decided to try to remember the scene and that it was all a dream (just a dream, not real, just a dream, not real) for my next REM period.

It was like a short intermission with blackness as everything went dark and then suddenly brightened up again, finding myself standing in the same campus area. Still lucid I once again took off from the ground, this time with a small crowd of fellow students (some of which I recognized as childhood friends) watching me. They were all smiling and obviously amused by my "power" of levitation and flight. I decided to show them more and flew over to the small ruins of a former red brick building. One of the walls was still standing and I pushed my hands through it. At first the wall seemed to give some resistance, but knowing I had done this in previous LDs I kept on trying. One of my childhood friends suddenly shouted up to me something like "Just think of it as liquid!" and, sure enough, my hands went through the wall. I withdrew them, backed up a bit a flew through it, much to the amazement of the crowd below. Thinking back at it this was the first time any dream character has ever been of assistance. Usually they all try to bring me out of lucidity by totally rejecting the idea that it's all a dream. Nevertheless, the scene started to fade again and I decided to do as before. Focusing and maintaining the fact that it was a dream.

The picture cleared up again and I was still on campus with old friends around me. I saw a car advancing and walked up stopping it with my hands outstretched. I gripped it by the fender and lifted the car up to my chest. It was heavy as hell and it took a lot of convincing myself that it was just a dream car to not drop it on my feet. One of my friends (can't remember which one) suddenly came to my aid and we flipped the car around. Why I had the urge to put on such a macho display is another matter... a matter for my therapist perhaps Next I saw a frind of mine from high school walking past and I decided to see if I could make him trip and fall down (you see, he's always been a bit of an ass... and so am I in my dreams obviously). Pointing at him and saying to myself "trip, come on trip goddammit" didn't seem to work. I actually had to imagine him falling down a step in front of himself (if that makes any sense) and, like magic, he did. I suddenly felt kinda bad about the whole tipping cars and people over and decided to go help some dream characters like i usually do in my LDs. I said "lets go help someone" to my little crowd in general and flew up a small grass covered hill.

I landed in front of two random characters unknown to me (there was a lot of students walking back and forth... I just had to pick someone) and asked if I could be of any assistance. "why? what's it to you?" said the first one and gave me a sceptical look. "I just like to help people, that's all" I said. "Money" he replied. "Money?" I asked to which he gave a nod. Well, I got my wallet from my back pocket and gave them both 500 Norwegian kroner and asked "Is that enough?" "Yes" he said and walked off with his friend without so much as a gratifying smile. I bet they both thought I was a complete loony. Soon after the scene faded again. I had three non-lucid dreams after that. Looking back at the whole giving-money-thing it was probably derived from expectation, cause i remember thinking once while awake that what if the dream characters I want to help don't have any problems for me to fix. The answer was of course money.

Anyone can always use some extra cash.

Sincerely André

exploring the ingratitude of dream characters

This dream combined a couple of things that I've read about in the forum recently - visual parallax, helping people out - but it also tosses in a lot of gratuituos dream weirdness!

Dream 20021101, 7:25 AM: The Upside-Down Airplane

I'm at the Kingwood house (my parents' house), and there are three black girls who are staying with us. They are some sort of musical act; it seems to me like they are some kind of pop act that I don't know anything about. They have arrived very late, and I am showing them around the house and getting them set up to go to sleep. I feel frustrated because I get the feeling that they're going to get my room and I'm going to sleep on the couch; I think that Richard ought to have to give up his room this time, but I look in and he's already asleep in there. I follow the girls into the bathroom, showing them where to put their stuff, and try to talk to one of them about their music. I ask if they write their own stuff or have someone who writes for them; she explains that Shakira is the one who does all the writing. I show them into my bedroom, which is the green bedroom, although it seems larger now, and I walk back down the hallway toward the front of the house.

I look out the back door window, and it is daylight outside. I see a shallow concrete ditch behind the house, separating it from the house across the back yard by a short distance. I look at this again, and realize it's not how the back yard of the Kingwood house is set up, and I think to myself this must be a dream. To check it out, I pick up my feet so that I'm hanging face-downward in the air. I laugh to myself, and decide to go off on a lucid adventure.

Without even a second thought to the guests in the house, I go out through the back door and fly into the sky. I seem to be just sort of floating in a current; I don't have any particular sense of a plan, just want to experience sensations. It is chill and a little damp, as if it had rained in the night, and it seems dark out here off and on. Some of the time I remember being able to see clearly, but the sky being dark; other times, it seems like it's day. I gambol around, and through an area full of trees. I reach out and grab a little dead branch from one of them, pausing for a moment next to it, and it snaps off in my hand. The branch is about the thickness of my thumb, and very brittle, as if it had gone punky. I wonder to myself for a moment if I'm actually able to break branches, because I'm dreaming, but then I look at my hand and see the broken twig, and decide that at least I'm able to dream that I broke it.

I fly around some more with no particular pattern or sense of direction, and I eventually find myself on the street a ways down from the Kingwood house. I land, and walk along. Looking up, I see an airplane in the sky; it seems like it's on its way in to land, because it seems particularly close. Then, I look again, and realize that it looks odd - it's upside down. It takes me a moment to process the fact that pasenger jets can't go upside down, and I fly up into the sky to see if I can get a closer look. Before I've gone very far at all, I realize that it's not a real plane, it's a little tiny one, about three feet or so long, hanging in the air not far above me. I reach up and take hold of it, and very gently turn it over so that it is right side up. I feel very concerned about the tiny people in the plane; I look in through the windows, trying to see if I can see them, and if they are all right from the roll-over. The windows seem like they have some condensation on them, and I can't really see in.

I take the plane and set it on the ground, right by the edge of the driveway. I think that there ought to be some way I could pusha button and trigger the emergency exits, so that the people could get out. I look at it, and there is a little button that says something about "Automatic Armpit" and I push that, and a big hatch opens up so that the rear end of the plane is open like a dollhouse, the top hinged up just in front of the wings so that about half of the passenger compartment is exposed. I look closely, and see the tiny people lined up walking to the rear escape hatch. Looking closer, though, I realize that they're not real people, they're little Lego-like dolls; they have little plugs for heads, and they don't have legs, just a little thing that plugs into the floor. I realize that it's a very elaborate toy.

Just as I'm thinking this, a man says a name; I think it's the name of the toy company. It's a long name beginning with an S. I look up, and it's Chef from NY, and he's standing against the mailbox, watching me. He's wearing a sweater that is mostly shades of fuchsia, with bits of black and bright blues. I explain that the airplane had been hanging upside down in midair, and I thought there were real people inside. I then tell him that I'm dreaming, I'm actually here in a lucid dream. He raises an eyebrow, like he's not quite sure if I'm telling him the truth. It seems like I see his face double, like my eyes are crossed. I close one eye and then the other, and the effect seems to fade.

I say, "And since I'm dreaming, let's get you naked." He looks at me with an expression somewhere between amused and surprised, and says, "Are you really sure you're dreaming?" and I reply, "Yup, really sure. I've done all kinds of flying, and seen impossible things. This is a dream." I reach over and pull up his sweater, and he reaches his hands down to help me.

Without apparent transition, we are inside the house, sitting on a chair that is where the speaker sits at the edge of the living room leading into the dining room. I hand him the airplane, and he leans over and places it on the kitchen table, and pulls his sweater off over his head. His chest and torso is very pale, but nicely muscled, and I run my hand over the skin feeling it. He says something that I think refers to a former boyfriend: "And you know what? He didn't produce a single f*cking clue-shot. It would have been fantastic." [My sense when he says this is that he means "cum-shot" but I think the fact that the Nova Dreamer hasn't cued me during this whole dream threw "clue" in there.] I lean down and start to nibble on his left nipple, the sensation of his skin against my face is very definite, but then I wake up.

Catching the Next Flight to Dreamland - Michael

Howdy all!

I've been off the lucid bus lately... have been busy with a lot of other things, and my sleep schedule has been messed up by it. However, I'm working in getting it back in line...

This morning's dream doesn't get lucid until the end, but when it does, I finally get a chance to ask a dream character for self-analysis... I get a brief but very enlightening answer.

Dream 20021205, 7:00 AM: Living with Lady Love (LUCID)

This dream begins with me married to an amazing, vibrant woman. She has curly dark hair, and wears it pulled back most of the time in a ponytail. She does everything - I know that she's an actress, I think she's also a doctor, and she races cars. At one point, she is talking about being typecast - this guy is trying to guide her career, and she is reading a letter or review, and scoffing at the guidance he is trying to give her. It is something about how now she has done this one particular film, if she can mellow gracefully through a couple of other films (he refers to a particular type, but I don't remember what kind) that then she'll be ready for more mature roles. She just laughs at the analysis. I remember her getting out of a racing car, and walking along talking about the movie thing.

Then, I'm in a house with her, and I know that it's our house, and it's very ornate and full of cool artifacts. They're art pieces of all different kinds. It reminds me of being inside the Barking Frog. There are all kinds of unusual ethnic artifacts. She is explaining that it's such a shame that I had to die. I say, "What?" and she says that she was able to tell what was going to happen, and I was going to die. She said, "Yeah, it's right after I do the thing with painting the table cloth, and you keep trying to mix tar into sawdust, and it catches fire and kills you." I tell her that I don't want to die, and so I'm going to avoid the tar and sawdust, and she just shrugs, like it's inevitable. She goes and starts doing a process of painting the tablecloth, and I know that it will preceed my dying, and it upsets me. She's painting it with something like a square floor brush, but instead of bristles it has these little round points, and when she dips into the paint and transfers to the cloth, each one makes a little grid of dots. She is just stippling back and forth to the paint. The table cloth is spread out over the top of a buffet, and that's where she's painting it. The cloth is cream, and she's painting it with a rusty orange color. She seems very set on the fact that I'm going to die, but doesn't seem at all upset about it. I don't feel as OK about it, and I keep asking her to stop painting. She turns, and throws a long pointed stick at me. We start having this complicated kind of desparate-feeling battle, stabbing at one another with the long wooden sticks. She is throwing little heavy bronzes at me, and I have a wooden pitchfork, and I'm batting them away with it so that they don't hit me. Finally, I hit her with one of the sticks - I either poke her with it or throw it - and she doesn't die, just keeps on fighting. After I've hit her two or three different times, she starts changing shape, becomes like an odd-shaped caricature doll, like a doll of a cartoon figure, wearing a purple-red dress which is stuffed. Her face is horrific, lots of teeth.

Then, a transition - I'm in a greenhouse with a group of people. I see these odd lizards, and I remember that I've seen them before and a name for them pops into my mind, and then a little boy says the name - it's something like Jelleels, or Jilelles. He picks one up, on a stick. They look like they're made of foam, but they're real. The guide is glad that the boy recognized them. Some are yellow, some are green. I also saw a little lizard in a cage that looks like a tropical chameleon. Then, somebody is talking about the price of a book they have; he said he was going to offer $20 for it, but it's like a $300 book, and he thinks the offer would be too low. I think the book is about orchids or bromeliads.

Then, somehow, I'm back in the house that I own with the lady. Except that it's not the same, and she's not the same either. It seems like we're not fighting now, and she hasn't died. We are standing around the dining table, and around the table behind the chairs are these little round flat drums that look like tambourines, and these little ball-shaped bells. She taps one of the drums with her toe and it makes a very resonant tone, and then she jogs the bell with her foot so that it jingles. She's explaining that it's a dinner music type experience, and you get someone to come around and play the drums and bells with their feet while you dine. The playing looks like a dance. I say something about, "So, the monks are going to come and dance for us while we eat?"

I am looking around the house at all the artwork. It looks like a gallery or shop, with things displayed on the tables and everywhere. The woman doesn't seem to be here now, but there are two men here, and I think they're partners. One of them is talking to the other about whether he has any antiques or other items that he wants to donate to the museum. Apparently part of our collection is a museum, but they're mixed in with the art items for sale. They are on display as well. There are lots of different styles and kinds - stained glass, sculpture, furniture, pictures. One of the guys is rubbing his hair, running his fingers through his hair, trying to think; his partner keeps asking him if he wants to donate. I explain that she has four separate businesses or accounts - one for the museum, one for the shop, one for her artwork, and one other one - I don't remember now what that one is. Then, she's here, and we're fighting again - the guys are gone. I start breaking things, and I'm trying to get her upset, but I don't know why. I pick up these little rock balls that are sitting on the tables and throwing them at mirrors and pieces of glass work and shattering them. I break a couple of large mirrors, then this beautiful huge window that is opalescent with shades of ruby and green, like a soap bubble. The moon is out, and was shining through it. In this part of the dream, the woman has blondish hair in a chin-length bob, looks different, but seems like the same person inside. Reminds me [after waking] of Lauren Hutton.

Then, I'm in a long public transport vehicle like a bus or train. I'm sitting down, and she comes in and gets on the bus and walks over to where I'm sitting. I say that I don't want to keep fighting. I say, 'I need to make this a lucid dream, so I'll remember what's going on." I look at her and say, "So what are you? What do you represent?" and she spreads her hands out, shrugs, and says, "I'm Love." She seems very matter-of-fact. I ask her, "Why did I want to call you Lauren?" She says she doesn't know. I decide that I need to write this down so that I'll remember it, and I grab a piece of paper and write down "Lauren" on it, and I see on the piece of paper that I had previously written "Jeanette," and I think that her name was Jeanette in the earlier part of the dream. I didn't talk to her much, but it seemed to be so helpful to figure out what she represented in the dream. I don't understand the fights or the symbolism. I sit there on the bus, with my arm around her shoulders, and she's wearing a white fuzzy sweater and she has a big soft chest. We just sort of hang out, as the bus is going along, our knees turned a little toward one another where we sit, so that we're not cuddling, but sitting close, and then I wake up, my heart pounding.

Michael- What a vivid, visual, detailed and evocative dream! Reading it was like experiencing it. Do you always dream this way? I certainly wouldn't know what the symbolism meant either. I have some questions that could help, ala Robert Moss's technigues. Why do you suppose the embodiment of love foretold your death and was so fatalistically unconcerned about this? Often death represents a death of one mindset followed by rebirth through a new one. What do you think the multi-cultural artifacts represented? Very interesting that you decided to become lucid because you had to ask a character for enlightenment. Do you suppose you were precluid, or do you think you actually made this decision from within a regular nonlucid dream? Lucidly, Kate

Dear dream explorers, I want to share with you here not my first, but my latest two LDs, each for a different reason. The first one because it is a short, exemplary text-book dream "inspired by and plagiating LaBerge's Mirrors and Lights Experiment, the second because of the dry comment my 12 year-old daughter Gal gave me immediately upon telling her ' in abbreviated form - my dream (see below)

Nov. 23, 2002. 7:00am. Had a LUCID dream tonight around 6:00am. I woke up around 4:30am and read for about 20 minutes LaBerge's paper about "Lights and Mirrors Experiment'. Then I closed the light and went to sleep. It took quiet a while, but the advantage is that I slowly start to be (more and more) aware of the hypnagogic (mind) images before falling really asleep. They are mere visual flashes of mental visualization that pop up without any control over the subject matter. In any case, without knowing what caused it, I suddenly (it always seems sudden; sometimes it because of a recognized dream signed, sometimes I can't point out any reason in particular) realized that I was LD-ing. I was just outside my bed, the room was dark. I go to the door and pull the door-handle down. Then I remember the light switch experiment I read about just before falling asleep and ' since it is dark in the room - I touch the wall looking/feeling for the switch; I find it and switch it on; the light goes on; I switch the switch off, but the light stays on. I feel my bed (not myself, because I am outside of it) vibrating like crazy, and I fear people in the next room (I am in a hotel) might wake up. I wake up (falsely) briefly; a friend of (my daughter) Gal is roller-skating around my bed and I realize (once again) that I am dreaming. Then I wake up (falsely again) "realizing" that my t.v. set is rather loud and could wake up the neighbor(s). I try to lower the sound but don't succeed. I can't find the remote control. I get stuck in some wiring. Then I really wake up. Dec.6, 2002, 8:15 am. I am in a hotel. It is a large, high building; I go to the upper, desolated, floor by elevator, go into a room and lay on my bed. The room (hotel) is rather rundown; the door of the room is of wood with an old fashioned iron locket; the walls are creamish-rough cement-like, falling off in various places. I look at the ceiling and start to see a beautiful emerald-blue sea surface (instead of, what perhaps might have been more logical, a blue sky), but as if seen from below, as if I am in the sea and looking up to the surface. However, the space between myself (on the bed) and the ceiling where I see this beautiful slice of sea surface projection is "empty'; it disappears and reappears and I want to see it from closer by. I (apparently) float upwards to the ceiling and see indeed a rippling water surface; I wonder what is at the other side of this blue sea screen and put my head through it and, in vertical position now, I float up through/penetrate the blue screen which is "indeed" wet, consisting of water. At that moment I (finally) realize that I am dreaming, and I am lucid. The water surface has a certain thickness (perhaps a meter), but it doesn't bother me to get through it; no breathing problems either. Once at the other side, having passed the water surface, I am still (or again?) in this big, empty room and I float up to one of the walls (on my right hand), because I want to find out where I am; There are no real windows in the wall, but high up, near the ceiling there are few rectangular openings, partly sealed with bricks with thick mortar in between them. I can peep through them and I see a beautiful tropical scene, with blue and greenish parrots with incredible long blue tails, flying around and sitting in jungle-like trees (Hawain-style?). I then lay down on my bed again and gradually wake up. Comment of my daughter: the empty room symbolizes your empty life, the colorful world at the other side stands for the future you are hoping for. Although I usually subscribe to the saying that "children and drunkards speak the truth', I beg to argue differently in this case. Colorful dreams, Edwin.

Kate,

Unfortunately, I don't always dream like this! These 'Big' dreams are not uncommon for me, but I have a lot more of the garden variety than I do of these fabulous hothouse flowers.

Lucid dreaming has become such a topic of interest for me that it tends to permeate my nonlucid dreams as well - I'll have dreams that mention lucid dreaming (I call these meta-lucid), and even have had some that "claimed" to be lucid dreams (I think of these as false-lucid), but didn't seem to actually be so - these were very strange. The one with Lady Love, I think, was a mostly non-lucid dream, and my dreaming consciousness just decided to rouse itself and ask the question. It didn't have the "right here and now" clarity of my WILD dreams, but the dream definitely became self-aware. I've been giving some thought to the symbolism, and it's produced some insight, but still some confusion... I'm hoping to incubate some further dreams to help elucidate.

On to this morning's dream! This one was at times pre-lucid, meta-lucid (dreaming about lucid dreaming) and then finally fully lucid, followed by more meta-lucidity ... it was interesting to see what my dreaming mind thinks about my dream studies! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dream 20021211, 6:45 AM: The Lucid Dream Workshop +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is one of those weird dream-about-dreaming-within-a-dream dreams... just for clarity, I didn't wake up in real life until the very end.

I'm sitting in a small, curtained-off area that reminds me of a hospital ward; there are white thin drapes on all four sides of the space I'm in, and it gives the impression of a row of similar spaces. There are two other people here sitting with me, one is a heavy-set woman, and the other is a young man, and some vague person is standing and talking to us. The three of us are in black plastic stack chairs. It seems like we're getting a lecture or explanation of some sort. I'm taking notes on a little 3x5 pad with a spiral at the top, using a pencil.

We are getting instructions about how to lucid dream. One of the instructions (I have like 3 or 4 written down the page, numbered) is to get closer - I look at the woman, and she thinks that it means that I'm going to lean over next to her; but instead, I put my feet up on the edge of the young man's chair. We're sort of facing one another in a triangle, and he is sitting with his legs turned, so there is a little part of his chair empty. We laugh, like it was an innovative solution to the instruction. I notice that my writing is becoming messy and hard to read as it goes further down the page. I am able to read it, though, and it doesn't seem to shift, although I don't remember to re-read.

Then, I'm up and walking down the outside of the row of curtained spaces. I am rubbing my hands together, and I know that once I can get the correct sensation indicating that my dream body is operational, I'll be able to get lucid. I try to feel the roof of my mouth with my tongue, and that causes too much real-body sensation, and I decide it's not a good idea because I might wake myself. (note: I think this is a second layer of dream-body that I'm working with... the "me" who is walking along the row of curtains is already a dream-body, although I'm not aware of the fact)

Finally, I get the sensation I was expecting - a sort of tingling warmth, and I know that it means that my dream body is fully engaged. I become lucid, and I decide that what I want to do is fly. I am somehow (without apparent transition) in Grandmother's old house in the woods near Grangerland, and I open the front door and step off of the porch and fly into the air. There are not as many trees as there were at the house in real life. I fly through the air a little bit, and enjoy the sensation of flight. I don't go far, though, before I wake.

I wake up, and find myself back in the same Grangerland house. I take off my Nova Dreamer mask and sit up; there is someone, perhaps two people, here with me in the bedroom; I tell them something about how lucid dreaming is a budget issue. One of them says something about how it shouldn't be a budget issue, and I explain that it's at least an issue with the available budget of REM sleep. Then, I tell them that I've just had a lucid dream, and I need to go and record it before I forget, and that I'll be in for class as soon as I'm done with that. Then, I wake (for real).

Rubbing my hands together hoping I'm dreaming, Michael

Dear dreamers, On this last day of the Old Year, I want to extend my best wishes for a Happy New Year to everybody. At the eleventh hour (that is last night, december 30th) I had a brief but very intense LD which I would like to share with you. I don't know what initiated my lucidity in this dream, but I suddenly realize with a shock that I am dreaming (it frequently happens "suddenly', shock-wise to me, that is without cues and for no obvious reason); however, in contrast with "many" other LD's of mine, this time ' and perhaps actually for the first time ' I not only realized my dream situation, but also had a tremendous euphoric feeling of being in FULL, TOTAL control of my situation. Strangly enough there was no real imagery in the beginning, although the scene was certainly not motionless or stagnant, nor was it coal (dark) black; what I saw/perceived was a continously moving and changing muddy brown-colored view of nothing; I can only described this by referring to those kid tv movies made up by and made out of plastelina, that is modelling clay. Sometime those clay characters/figures are transforming from one thing, say a snow man, into something else , say, a bulldozer. Some of those tv movies show this transformation with bubbling, wobbeling, moving patches of clay (I really don't succeed to describe it properly, sorry). In any case, I was FULLY aware that I was dreaming and while observing this moving non-scenerey of undulating brownish clay stuff, I remember what LaBerge somewhere once wrote about calling your own name in an LD. Considered impossible or difficult by some, it was "no biggy" according to LaBerge. I can now subscribe to that by myself, because I called out my name two or three times without any effort (and without any noticeble consequences). I then started to look for someone in the brownish blurb, and gradually a lying person "materialized" from the still moving muddy-brown clay scenery. It appeared to be myself, and funny enough, I could only see myself from toes down up to my chest (that is not my neck and head), as if I was watching my own body from my own bodily self-position. I then loose lucidity and the dream smoothly continued (with imagery) that I was laying in bed and somebody came into my room with a cake. The whole LD must have taken not longer than 2 minutes I guess, but it was with an awareness and feeling of total control, I have never experienced before in my (30 odd) LD's ('collected' over the last year and a half). If any one can subscribe to this plastelina-like (initially non)imagery, I would be much obliged to hear about it. Again Happy New Year, and Many Happy (they always are) LD's to all, Edwin.

Clay animation seems like a wonderful analogy for the plasticity and malleability of apparent physical reality that's so evident in dreams. I like it!

hi everyone, i'd just like to introduce myself to the group and wish everyone a happy new year. i've been following some of the threads for the past few months, and would like to say a big thanks to keelin for inviting me to join up and start contributing. i'm not sure if this is where i should be posting any of this, but here goes. i've got a general question about something that happened while i became lucid, where my own dream body became visible and separate from my awareness. i was wondering if any of you kind folks could point me towards any more information about this phenomenon.

well here's what happened:

after a false awakening from a non-lucid dream, i noticed i was looking down on my sleeping body, hovering about a foot above and to the right of myself, whilst sleeping on the right side. The bedroom scene was 'just normal' looking, but the chest and head of my dream body seems to illuminated from within, pixellated and flashing, as if made up of 'tv light', a sure sign that cued me to become lucid. but instead of trying to perform the usual spinning and stabilising tasks or generally enjoying the situation, i became overwhelmed with a great sense of menace as i felt that though this body i could see was definitely mine, it was not under my control. this feeling soon proceeded to panic when i noticed my dream bodies' eyes beginning to slowly open. i quickly looked away thinking that if i look into my own eyes something terrible will happen. this wakes me up. so any ideas? i very rarely have nightmares or anything similar, but this, especially as it was a lucid experience, really shook me up.

looking forward to hearing your comments, take care,

mark

Hi, Mark -

As I happen to be on line today enjoying a cruise through the Forum and neglecting my responsibilities, I have the pleasure of welcoming you. Good to have you visible among us.

Even among those of us who are comfortable with the idea that perception is not confined to the physical body and its senses, it seems to be fairly common to find something distinctly disconcerting about seeing one's own image from the outside. A couple of nights ago I saw my headless body in the bedroom mirror, casually took this as confirmation that I was dreaming, and decided not to look for my disembodied head in the bed! Seeing oneself in a mirror - even headless! - seems to be a more familiar and comfortable experience than just turning around and seeing oneself.

From my perspective, it's possible that you were just dreaming about seeing your body and also possible that within your dream you were perceiving something about your body via your non-physical, intuitive senses. Some people draw a distinction between dreams and "out-of-body experiences" - I'm among those who just see it as a type of dream that includes a sensation of one's awareness being separate from the physical body. (Which is not to minimize its potential - that sensation often frees people to explore in ways they wouldn't otherwise think possible.) If you do a keyword search for "OBE" you'll find a few postings in here that may relate to yours.

Joy

Mark:

Welcome!

I have to dig back more than 20 years (though it seems like yesterday), but I do remember a lucid dream where I experienced that kind of dread:

I was flying through the empty bleachers of a massive "Bladerunner'-like arena, just minding my own business enjoying the all the best sci-fi sights I could conjure. Then I noticed, tucked in a cubby to one side of the aisle was a bed with a familiar blanket on it. Interested, I went to the bed, and saw a person sleeping on his back, on top of the covers. It took a second, but when I realized it was me I was looking at, in my bed, I felt a sudden desperate need to get back into my body before it was too late. Too late for what, I hadn't a clue, but the fear was palpable. I floated above my body, and tried repeatedly to settle into it from above, but I just kept bouncing off of me. I grew decidedly terrified after my own body deflected me about the 10th time, and finally was sure that was it, I was never going back in; I would be a ghost wandering the dreamworld forever. That thought for some reason soothed me, and I decided to take a chance and wake up, in spite of failing to get back into my body in the dream. After a couple of false awakenings, I finally woke up, on top of the covers, in the very same position. My heart was pounding, but I was I was alive and well.

What I learned from this was to not be concerned the next time I saw myself like that (and it's happened plenty of times since). After all, it was 'just' a dream, and I was in control of the dream, so whatever images I encountered were connected to my own psyche and, therefore, were nothing to be afraid of.

These days if I see myself asleep, I tend to walk away from the image. This is because I think that when you see yourself like that, or perhaps see your bedroom, what's really happening is that with the approach of wakefulness your mind is sending some mixed (reverse hypnagogic?) signals. To walk away might bring more sleep, and more dreams.

Like Joy, I don't think these experiences are OBE's. They're still dreams. If you approach from that perspective, there is little reason to worry.

Peter

Hi I have just started using the Nove Dreamer Mask. I have had no results for over a week. until a couple of nights ago, I was dreaming and the Nova Dreamer kicked in, I saw the lights and took off the mask in my dream because I could not see where I was going. BUT I did not say to myself hey I am dreaming, although after wakeing I could remember taking the mask off in my dream. Also my some of my dreams have become very vivid, even without the mask. Last night is was as if I was watching a movie I was not taking part until a woman come over to me and said how do you like this sort of dreaming, WOW!!! How did that person know I was dreaming, I woke up after that but remembered all of what happened. Can someone else enter your dream? and know you are dreaming. If someone has any input please let me know. Happy dreaming Frank

Hello, Frank, and thanks for sharing your experiences with the NovaDreamer.

Based on what you've said, I'm guessing that lucid dreaming is fairly new to you. I'm going to assume that some basic information about dreaming would be of use to you... so that's what I'd like to talk about here. If this is all too basic, please excuse me. But your question gives me the idea that this dream-stuff might sometimes be a puzzle. Fair enough... you're off to a good start, and you've come to the right place.

So... congratulations. You've now had a glimpse of just how vivid dreams can be.

This vividness might be new to you, either a side-effect of using the NovaDreamer, or simply a result of thinking more about your dreams. You might also be recalling your dreams more easily, now that the subject is getting such attention. Those flashing lights are being noticed by your mind... even if you're not consciously aware of them. And also, it's not hard to imagine the whole project is having an effect on your dreaming, even if you're not becoming lucid.

It's important, when you're trying to become a lucid dreamer, to be very clear about the dreaming process.

Keep in mind that the dreaming mind does roughly the same thing 24 hours a day'it generates an ongoing sense of reality. During waking hours, this sense of reality is formed around the information provided by your senses. The mind is so good at its job, that we aren't aware of the process... we just experience the whole package as reality.

But during dreams, the outside sensory information is cut back pretty drastically" and the mind creates its sense of reality based mostly on inner information, instead, in a kind of free-wheeling way. In spite of the difference in what they're made of, there is no reason why dreams can't be just as real'just as believable" as waking reality. It's the same process going on, after all.

I'll get to your dream in a minute. The first trick is to make sure you accept that the mind works hard to create your world, even while you're sleeping. Then you must accept that your ongoing challenge is to always be critical of what state you're in. Are you dreaming right now? Are you sure? If you form the genuine habit of checking this carefully while you're awake, the habit will eventually carry over into your dreams. Then, when you check out a dream, you'll know it for what it is... catch it in the act, so to speak.

Knowing it's a dream while you're dreaming is what lucid dreaming really is. It requires that you be good at figuring out what's what. The literature that comes with the NovaDreamer has some very specific exercises that can really help with this process.

Now we're finally ready to tackle that dream. I'm going to assume for the moment that you were not visited by someone in your dream. Why? Well, when you really think about it, it's a more logical policy to first assume the more plausible explanation, before reaching for an exotic one. The simplest and most logical explanation is the one we should consider first. For now, let's agree in theory that there is very likely a logical explanation, based on what we know about how the mind works, that doesn't require us to go out on a metaphysical limb.

What would this more likely explanation be? Remember; the mind creates some pretty convincing stuff. If we're not careful, we can be fooled. Do you really think someone came into your dream to talk to you about your dreams? I don't know you at all, but I'll just bet you don't really believe that. So, given the mind's power to create a convincing reality'characters and all--- and also, given your desire to become a lucid dreamer, it's not suprising that a Dream-Character would show up and start talking to you about" your dream! Could it be, you're trying to tell yourself something? Yes; it's quite a clever dream your mind came up with!

One interesting part of all this, something that has always fascinated me, is how something can happen in a dream that can take us by surprise. This is partly why people can become confused by dreams. It's sometimes hard to accept that "someone" can pop up and do something unexpected.

Remember; there is more to your mind than just the part you're aware of. Part of your mind can be busy creating the dream-- characters and all!-- and the other part can be observing it. The mind is quite able to come up with a very convincing dream-character... sometimes one that seems to know more than we do!

I'm not totally ruling out a more psychic explanation... but my simpler explanation is certainly a very good fit... and one that's consistent with what we know about the human mind.

You might think of it this way: it's all part of who you are... we have a lot more to our minds than we realize. I myself rather like knowing my mind is such a sophisticated device... even if I never did get a copy of the user's manual!

Enjoy your journey,

Reverie

Very interesting report, Peter. I've never actually seen myself in bed, but I do have WILDs when I'm in bed as normal, and at some point recognise that events there are not normal :o)

I've just popped in to report that I've been super-busy for a year, and bereft of LDs. But things are calming down now, so I visited this site a few days ago to see how everyone was doing. Sure enough, that night I had an LD. I'm happy to say that I remembered to spin, clap my hands, and bow politely to dream figures. But then got so elated at being 'back' that I went flying, met a bunch of attractive people, and totally lost it.

Love to Ralf, Keelin and all the Maui squad.

Alan!!

Glad to see you here online again. And back to the lucid thing, too.

Tons of lovely lucids to you

Ralf

Dear Reverie,

Thank you for your bright, guiding light and timely reminder to us all regarding the vividness of dream experiences in your responses to both Frank and Ilkin (in another thread) -- and for keeping us true to "the context and mission of this Forum". It is indeed amazing how completely convincing dreamed imagery can be, especially when infused with a desire that it somehow be "real" -- even when we know to some degree that we are in fact dreaming.

We may all easily agree on the basic definition of "lucid dreaming", but it is often difficult to ascertain the degrees of awareness within the broad spectrum available to us -- even within a single dream. How often have I been keenly aware that all I'm experiencing is purely a mental model, only to misinterpret the full meaning of that insight in the next moment?!

And after years lucid dreaming, it still somewhat surprises me to remember that even the "I" who appears in my dreams is really yet another "dreamed character"! Amazing, amusing, this inner journey we embark upon.

I would recommend to all the excellent article, "A Fool's Guide to Lucid Dreaming" by Lynne Levitan, which addresses this topic in more depth. http://www.lucidity.com/NL62.FoolsGuide.html

More light! Keelin

PS: Frank: a warm welcome to the Forum and thank you for sharing your dream. I hope you'll keep us posted with further NovaDreamer adventures.

Hi, Keelin... so nice to hear from you on this. It's interesting that you mentioned Lynne's article, as I actually thought to reference it in my post to Frank when I got to the part about dream-characters, and also talking about what lucidity is. Only some last-minute restraint (the desire not to get too lengthy or parenthetical) stopped me from going further... so anyway, I'm really glad you brought it up, including where to find it, which I don't have. That's a great piece to read and re-read.

You're right of course... it is amazing how even experienced lucid dreamers can be confounded and confused about just what it means when we "know" it's a dream. There's such variance; it's as if the Light of Lucid Awareness is on a reostat. I'm especially interested in how we behave with other dream-characters. (The persisitence in lucid dreams of certain conventionalities in thinking was a central theme of a little paper Alan Worsley and I developed for the consciousness conference at Tucson a few years ago. This was before I woke up from the recurring dream where I was an emerging amateur researcher). :-)

Some of my funniest dreams feature discussions by various dream-characters on the topics of dreaming and lucidity. In fact, you and I have both had some funny experiences with this, haven't we? So humbling; so hysterical... I get a big kick out of dreams where "I'm" holding forth with great eloquence on lucid dreaming to an enraptured "listener". Yikes!

(I guess "mio sogno non finito"... my dream has not ended).

As always, your light burns bright and true, Keelin... Reverie

Hi ALAN and RALF,

STAY lucid tonight......

In honour to all Maui healers and vulcano fighters.

Hermine

Dear fellow dreamers, I would like to share with you this brief LD (lasting probably not more than 30 seconds) I had few days ago, since it marks another step in the exploration of my small, personal dream mind/world. I was riding my bike at the right side of a wet asphalt road; the scene was almost colorless (black/sepia brown and white; possibly it was night); I noticed that the asphalt was covered with large ancient egyptian hieroglyphs, glimmering and silver-like. This made me realize that I was dreaming. I immediately drove my bike into the left lane, into uncoming traffic (cars), because I wanted to see how it would feel to drive into a car (unconscious deathwise? Just joking) and penetrate it with my body. So, I drove into the side of a small, white, pick-up car. I could see the driver in the driver's seat, looking to me in astonishment. My body penetrates the pick-up's car left side, slowly, ploughing his/my way through numerous carton boxes (these being loaded on to the back of the pick-up car). It is a nice sensation, sliding through and slicing, ghost-like, the metal of the car and the carton boxes. It took some effort though and in order to slice also through the right side of the car, I had to pull myself towards it with my hands holding the rail. Upon completion of this "task', I immediately drop myself from the moving pick-up car, because I wanted to know how it feels to be overrun by the next car. I painlessly hit the ground; however, not any longer the asphalt road, but a snow-covered road (it would also be possible to say that I lost vision, and everything was just (snow)white. I then remember a recent LD I had with a beautiful mountain panorama, and I decided to climb the mountains. At that instant I say to myself that I should remember all this for later when I wake up, and then, unfortunately, I do wake up indeed. The bottom line for me is this: I have had several LDs in which my body penentrates (mainly) buildings while flying, but never had I sought to do this with so much conscious intention (as if, indeed, setting my self a task or experiment). Shining dreams to everybody, Edwin. PS. I now realize I didn't do any reality check upon realizing I was dreaming; with this kind of deadly experiments I hope I will continue to know to distinguish blindly between dream and reality...

Howdy all!

I've been preoccupied with other endeavors, and haven't had much quality dreamtime lately. I decided a week or so ago to change that, and got lucid again this morning. Not a long or intense one, but it was fun!

Dream 20030204, 7:00 AM: Ice Skating with the Gym Instructor

I am in a gymnasium, like one at a high school. There is a big patch of ice on the floor, actually one large patch and several smaller patches, and I am ice skating on them. It's sort of a lazy twirling pattern, more like I'm doodling than doing any specific routine. I don't feel entirely comfortable on the skates, but still noticeably better than I could do in real life, with turns, reverses, pivots, and such. The patch of ice is the shape of an oval with a little rectangle "bite" out of one of its long sides; it retains this pattern through all of its permutations. The shape isn't very distinct now, and there are several random-shaped patches around it.

There is a guy in here, sandy wavy hair, handsome. I am talking to him, telling him that there was ice when I got here, and I figured that I ought to skate a little while there was still ice. It seems as if it will melt when the day warms up. I ask him what he does, and he explains that he teaches weight training at a high school. He goes on to explain that it's a specialized system for sports, like performance enhancement rather than bodybuilding. He explains with a gesture, like he's using weights to strengthen his javelin throw.

I stop skating, and he and I walk out into the hallway. There are students walking up and down, like it's class change, although the hall isn't crowded. I tell him something, but I don't remember what. There are papers in a little alcove in the hallway wall, and I reach over and grab one with my mental powers, making a hand gesture as if I were picking it up, but it's all the way across the hall and it flies into my hand. I look at the guy and shrug, and say, "Dream powers." Then realization dawns, and I say, "Which means I'm dreaming!"

I approach the guy, and tell him to give me a kiss. He makes a startled face and sort of backs away; I move forward and he is backed against a wall, and although he starts out acting like he's startled, he gets into it and kisses back after a minute. It's not drawn out, just a brief kiss.

I decide that I want to go skate some more, now that I'm lucid. I say, "Come on!" and run back into the gymnasium. There are a lot of people in here now, mostly sitting down on the floor, some in chairs or bleachers. I go to the center of the floor, and tap the floor twice with my fingertip, and a pattern of blue ice starts to form, spreading outward from my finger to make a rink. It looks like parquet tiles, with a grain, but it is smooth. It has a low lip built around it, and the same pill-with-a-bite-out shape described at the beginning. The shape is now very distinct. I look at the guy, who is now sitting down in a chair; he has no skates. He has a pair of odd soft shoes with him, like the shoes that cyclists wear, blue, with velcro to close the sides, and I tell him that those might work. Then, I see the tennis shoes he is wearing, and say, somewhat mischievously, "No... just tap your heels together." I look away and imagine that his shoes will have blades on them. I look back, saying, "Did that do it?" and sure enough, there are ice skate blades on the bottom of his tennis shoes now. He gets up and walks to the rink, and I join him, and he starts skating backward in front of me as I'm skating forward.

Now that I'm lucid, my earlier ease on the skates is gone. I feel wobbly and not quite sure, just like I would in real life. He holds out his arms and guides me, halfway between holding hands and a ballroom grip. I think he mostly holds my elbows. There are big sail-shaped pieces of fabric that are attached to the edges of the rink and tied up to the ceiling far above; they are too close, and we catch in them as we make a circuit of the rink. They are printed or sewn with some kind of pattern, I think it's a Texas flag, or portions thereof. I lean down and touch the edge of the rink, making it expand; I figure it's OK because there aren't a bunch of people in here. I'm enjoying the sensation of being on the skates, although I still feel like I'm clumsy, and the guy is still skating backward helping me. My skating gets better with the practice. Then, the dream fades, and I try to spin to hold it, but find myself lying in bed. end

Michael

This morning's cool lucid dream - I enjoyed the bizarre behavior of the clocks, but wish I could have really turned them back in time to dream longer!!

Michael

Dream 20030218, 7:40 AM: Tiny Turtle Surprise

I am at home, but the house isn't my house, it's the Kingwood house (where my parents live), kind of. I'm in the blue bedroom (which was my bedroom during most of my growing up, and is where I stay now when I visit) and on the bookcase is a container that appears to be like a diorama of a cave made out of sand. I look into it, and inside there is a plastic bag containing several baby turtles and a couple of eggs. I realize that there were only eggs in there when it was sealed up, and that whoever closed it up must have thought that they weren't viable and wouldn't be hatching. I reach into the little cave, breaking the top off of it in the process (it crumbles, like sand that was damp but has dried) and pull out the bag with the turtles. I am talking to someone who is with me now (one of those ubiquitous dream companions) and say that see, they're alive... I touch the nose of one through the plastic with a pencil eraser, and it bites down on it vigorously. I open up the end of the bag, but don't take the turtles out; I figure that they must be hungry and thirsty.

I hunt around, trying to find a good container for the turtles. I look at several different things, but none of them seems like the right container. They're either too short, too open, or the wrong size. I finally find a zippered blue lunch-box shaped thing that looks like it would do. It has writing on the inside with a black marker, but it's all smeared and I can't read what it says.

Then, I'm in a classroom, and a professor is talking about something that sounds totally foreign to me. He is talking about the trip rate, or tip rate, of some electronic piece of equipment (a cell phone?) and he is pointing to a column of acronyms or short words (they're things like TIP DIT WRJ) on a big white piece of paper. I am totally confused. I look around, and it seems to be making sense to everyone else. I am still holding the turtles. I say something about how I must be in the wrong class, and the professor says something back about how I am obviously not prepared, and I get up and leave.

Then, I'm in a house. I don't think I have the turtles any more, but I don't remember where they went. I am walking around, and for some reason try to do a handspring - I think to myself that I must not be dreaming really deeply, or I'd be able to do it. I try a couple more times, and then realize that I'm dreaming - it's one of those so-obvious realizations. I remember something about visiting my sleeping body, and I start walking through the house looking for where I am sleeping. It has something to do with the feeling of fuzzy vagueness that I'm experiencing, and I want to increase my lucidity. I see several people in small twin beds, in rooms that appear to lead into one another, or there may be a common room that they're opening off of. I look at one of them, and start to lift the covers off the sleeper's head, but a dream companion tells me that I shouldn't do that, or I'll wake the sleeper, and it would end my dream. I look at several clocks as I'm walking around the house, and although they start out being close to real time (around 7:40) they seem to go backwards as I tell myself that I don't want it to be so late... I remember seeing one that was 7:23 and then another that was 7:20. Then, there is one that is a black-on-green LCD screen, and it looks like mathematical formulae; it doesn't have any semblance to the numbers that indicate time. It changes as I watch, and the numbers move around the face of the clock.

I decide that I want to fly, and see how it feels. I go out through a sliding glass door onto a back deck that is heavily populated with large potted plants; I remark to myself that it looks very different from my own porch, which has no plants on it. These are all large tropical greenery plants, like corn plants and striletzias. I start to fly up into the air, and for a moment I wonder if I need to swim actively, or just float. I decide that since I'm very conscious of the fact that I'm dreaming, I won't need the flying action - the floating will be fine. I float upward, and encounter the branches of a big oak tree that is leaning over the deck; the branches are sort of punky and dry, and I remember the distinct texture of the wood being crumbly as I bump into it. Then the alarm goes off, and I wake up. end

Hi, Michael and all you lucid folks

I like to read your lucids, Michael. They are so full of life. The clock thing is funny.

Want to add one of mine here, glad to have one so uplifting after some dry spell:

Saturday, 01 March 2003

Had a lucid this morning:

"Natural" and intended light 01032003 #ND #LD #prolonging #music #mechanical malfunction #dancing #singing #moving #light #sun

I'm playing acoustic bass in a band with someone else, who plays the guitar. It is like we are on the roof of a taller building. White walls, maybe a Mediterranean style. I am surprised, my technique isn't bad (I never played bass, but acoustic guitar), but the sound is too dull for my taste. I try the pop and slap thing, but the effect isn't that exciting. Now it seems, that the covering of the strings dissolves and I'm playing on a thinner, harder (metal?) string. But the crumbling cover hinders my fingers moving, so I stop.

I go downstairs a long way in this building. Looks like a private house. Stairs made of wood. I dance and sing the way down. As I finally come down to the exit and open the door, it dawns on me, that I'm dreaming. It is bright day outside. Just get the feeling of a dreamlike quality here. Without hesitating I keep on moving, continue my dance and kinda childish lalala singing. I'm glad this stabilises my dream. I enjoy it and make my way upstairs again (don't really know, why I didn't go out...). Visuals fade and come back, while I focus on my dreambody. On a higher floor I see beams of light shining in. I turn around the corner (to the left) to test the light, wondering, how intense it can be. It is very intense, just like staring directly into the physical reality sun, ok, doesn't hurt my eyes. I see a small white ball of light just right of another tall white building. (Now, that I write down the dream, I'm not that sure, whether the intensity is actually comparable. Maybe more like on a winters day, when the sun is covered by a thin cloth of clouds or high fog.) I turn away, fearing to loose the dream, if I stare too long and continue my way up. Now everything turns dark. I focus on dreambody, dancing and singing and call: Lights on! It is only gradually getting brighter. Still penumbral. I have now reached the end of the stairs, in front of me the door, I entered, before I went down. I stand still a moment and awake in physical body. Glad that I had a longer lucid after a long dry spell of a month or so.

Sunday, 02 March 2003

Superficial Testing 02032003 #ND #reality check

I'm outside at a bus station. Looking around I think: "Maybe it would be worthwhile to start doing reality - checks again, now that I had a lucid. But I should do it diligently, not superficially, that wouldn't make any sense." I superficially look around, seeing some advertisement sign. Look away, look back. Hm, doesn't change. The world gains vividness, while doing it. So the testing finally pays off in waking life, as well. I'm glad. And go on dreaming...

Hey! It's been a while since I wrote anything here so I thought I should post something just to let you know that I'm still alive. The following is a lucid dream I had a few days ago, rather long post but, well, errhh... ? Nevermind.

I'm travelling by bus in a town called Falun. I have no idea where I'm going or why. After a while the bus stops outside a big gymnasium and everybody gets off. A man begin giving us instructions but I neither understand nor care. And so I go inside and muddle about, saying hello to everyone I meet and speaking my mind out loud. I act with a sort of "pre-lucid" arrogance, just as if I knew I wouldn't have to face any consequences. I happen to find the reception desk where I force my way past the queue and begin mess with the receptionist. I demand to see the principle. I don't know why, but I do. She says she doesn't know how to reach the principle. We stands there quarrelling for a while and somehow I find it quite amusing. Finally she gives me a phone and says I can call the principle if I want. But I don't know the number and the secretary couldn't care less. By no particularly reason I now become lucid.

I smile and look around. When the receptionist once again asks why I want to see the principle I say it's because she has my sword. Then I very carefully describe my magic, two-handed, Japanese sword. She just repeats that she doesn't know how to get hold of the principle. I ask for the way to her room but she doesn't know that either. Then I point over to a stairway down the hall and tells her that I want the principle's room to be just up those stairs and that this is my dream and therefore it will be as I say. She gives me a amiable smile and nods. I get the feeling that she sees me as a silly little boy who doesn't know what he's talking about, but at the same time she's willing to fulfil my wish just because I'm so loveable childish. I smile back and head down the hall and up the stairs.

At the next floor I find the principle's office just where I want it to be. Outside there is secretary sitting behind a desk. I ask if the principle is in and the secretary answers that she is down in the cafeteria drinking coffee. But when I don't turn around and instead begin walking towards the door the secretary gets up from her chair and changes her mind. Now she says the principle is having a very important phone call and that I cannot disturb her. I say I don't care and when I grasp the door handle she grabs my shoulders from behind in an attempt to stop me. I turn around smiling at her. Slowly I take her hands off me and kindly explains that it's okay because this is my dream and she doesn't have to worry about loosing her job or anything. She seems a little ashamed and with a girlish giggle she turns around and go back to her desk again. I open the door and enter the room.

Behind a big desk right in front of me I find the principle. She's rather small but very beautiful with blond curly hair reaching her shoulders. Next to her stands two almost naked model-like women touching each other. They all seem surprised to see me but don't stop with what they're doing. I try to not get distracted by the two women and say hello to the principle. I ask if she's really the principle and she begin speaking of the highly respected schools she has worked in. I skip the small talk and demand her to give me my sword. At first she plays innocent but as the discussion progress she changes her mind several times. From not knowing it at all she says she has heard about it, had it but sold it and finally that she has it at home but that she wants 16 000 dollars for it. I try to make her say where her home is but she doesn't want to. I explain to her that as the god of this dream world I will let it rain brimestone from the sky and turn water in to flaming fire if she doesn't comply. But she just waves it aside and says that I have to loosen up and then she introduce me to the two women.

They has settled down in a big leather couch but now they rise again. They're still almost naked and breathtaking beautiful. The principle tells them to make me feel real comfortable and so they approach me with cunning smiles. I know were these things always end and so I try to turn away, unfortunately I hit my forehead against something, maybe the door frame. Everything gets dark and weird. For a while it feels like I'm in water but then I slowly wake up. I try to lay completely still so I can enter the dream world again but my arm has gone numb and I have to move it. And so I turn around and slowly go back to sleep again, non dreaming.

I had and still has this feeling that those silly dream characters were just playing with me. I succeeded to turn the dream into a sword quest and the office and everything were just where I wanted it to be. That make me feel satisfied. But still I didn't get what I wanted the most, my beloved sword. It's like if the dream characters know I'm the one with the power and therefore they fulfil some of my wishes, but at the same time they withhold the most important things. I love my dreams... but, argh!!!

Hi, Linus

Fine to see you here once again. And you did display a fine level of control, for sure. Interesting how you talk to the dream people. We had some discussions on how to treat dream characters, hadn't we? I have the impression, you know very well, that these characters have some kind of personality. Maybe they are parts of yourself. If you encounter similar situations next time, why don't you ask them, why they don't want to do, as you wish? If it has come that far, why don't you ask them, what game they are playing?

Swords ... don't come easy

Ralf

Hi, Linus and all

Reading your latest dream posted here did certainly help me to apply the "door - navigation" technique for the first time.

So tons of thanks to you

Yours Ralf

The report:

I awake. It is 430. I lie there, thinking over daytime affairs, must we accept 7% interest for our new cars, etc. Think I should spend my time more useful and try for LD, inspired by the yesterday talk with Jean. Get up for a pi, go back, snuggle a minute with my spouse, who is always waking up, when I get up. Tell her some nice things. Then lay on my back and relax, move awareness systematically through the body for relaxation, drift off, gently push myself back, then turn to my right side, using a special yoga position, because my legs are getting numb. (No, not just deeply relaxed, but numb) My plan is in an LD to add some energy to our lovely reservoir at WDPB. I fall asleep unconsciously.

Bickering for lucidity 15032003 #ND #LD #DSA3 #violence #dancing #music #hovering #flying Then I'm in a room with some youngsters, maybe 14 years old. Somehow we fool around, I'm bickering with one of them, who is much larger than me. But I manage to catch his arm from behind and control his moves, while I hold his chest. He finds that funny and amazing. I even dance in this way to the music, that is there. Now I notice, my feet don't touch the ground. That is strange. Feels like this is more or less hovering, than dancing. I let go of him and demonstrate, that I can stretch out and hover lying in the air. This is when I get fully lucid. I hold on for some seconds, but awake physically in bed.

It has often been the case, that I woke up, when I didn't touch something in an LD. I learned before, that it is better to be grounded there for me for not to wake up prematurely. I just lie still, of course glad, that LD induction worked. Not so glad, that I didn't apply any prolonging technique. I wait for sleep to return, focussing my intention to go and add to the reservoir.

Cleansing run to the reservoir 15032003 #ND #LD #WILD #DSA3 #NAVIGATING #PROLONGING #door #lavatory #WDPB I soon find myself in another building, this time seemingly lucid from the beginning. Seems to be some public thing. I remember the door - technique as a means of navigation. I say: Behind the next door is a hook. (I'm not entirely clear). I notice my unclear intention, but go on and slip through a kind of trap close to the floor. There is a lavatory in the adjacent room. I get up and move (an important prolonging technique) consciously feeling my feet touch the ground. Now I'm clearer, but somehow in a hurry, somewhat afraid to loose the dream, before I reach my target. I look for the next door and intend our reservoir being there, when I go, better say - run - through. Seemingly I don't have enough time for the intention to sink in, because after the next door is a lavatory, again. I keep running and intending, pass another three doors, another three lavatories before I awake physically.

This time I do move. I'm glad with my progress, but still haven't reached the goal. I think that was due to my seemingly unclear intention. I lie there and visualise our reservoir, the blue glowing mist above the waters, the scenic nature. I sleep in and find myself painting up a door with the blue from the reservoir. I immediately wake up, with an inner laughter (my spouse is still sleeping besides me) about this last dreamy picture. I feel like I have enough with LD induction and get on with some normal sleep.

Comment: All in all I'm satisfied, even if I haven't reached my goal. It is always funny to experiment in LD and see, what comes out of it. And at last there may be some symbolic meaning to why it were lavatories and not the reservoir. My intention could have been clearer, I should find a way to calm down. And maybe my fear of awakening physically was the strongest intention... It may need another bunch of LDs to get into the prolonging / stabilising / navigating affairs again. I see that like with other mental tasks: It needs practice. But I'm glad that I haven't forgotten everything. And I did something new: The door thing.

P.S. The "reservoir" is meant to be a shared dream place for those at the WorldDreamsPeaceBridge, where we want to add and share healing and loving energies.

Ralph A dream pun/sign that I frequently experience is seeing a badly soiled lavatory; the pun being that the French word for human waste is (as you probably know) merde which could, at least in English, be spelt maerd, get it?

Hi, Robert

So, we should more often use mirrors in waking life to get used to see things in way we should to be in dreams awake.

Flar Sruoy

iH Flar

Just so

Reash Trebor ;)

Nap technique dream initiated. Woke up at 4:00 a.m. and went back to sleep at 4:36 again. Its kind of funny when I started the nap technique I stayed awake for an hour, then slowly worked it down to its current time of thirty six minutes. The shortest span of time I can get away with is what I am after.

As I fell asleep I came up with a theory. I felt if I could overwhelm myself with an array of visual impressions and tacit sensations, a point would be reached when my mind was overwhelmed and get sucked into the dream world. I called this point in time critical mass. So I set out trying to achieve said "critical mass'. I figured I would do it in a very crude and rudimentary manner, visualizing only the basics. I visualized ground under my feet, a stretching expanse of sky, and tried to feel as if I was there, staring at the sky. I tried to feel buildings and structures to the left and right of me. I felt something shooting down the base of my neck and through my spine. It was quite an odd sensation. I knew I was getting close to the threshold. Then I simply fell asleep.

I was in a restaurant; it had the look and feel of a fast food place. There was a stem wall there, and I think I was supposed to be working on it for some reason. I needed to add support for a countertop. I began saying, "Up, solid and supported.' When I said this the first time, corbels made of 2 by 4's appeared on the wall, about 6 of them. They weren't quite right, and I kept repeating "Up, solid and supported.' I glanced to my left, towards a glass door at the front of the place, suddenly realizing the impossibility of my mental manipulations. Impossible unless I was dreaming. I broke for the door, leaving my absurd task behind me. Keep moving, I thought. I looked to my left and there was small parking lot. I lifted my legs off the ground and began to fly 6 feet up or so.

So I was now lucid flying around. That's when things got a bit weird. As I was flying the dream began to morph into a replica of my neighborhood, and not a very good one I might add, lots of things weren't exact as in real life. For example the auto store was misplaced, too far too the left. The gate in the chain link fence was smaller and was in the wrong location, also too far to the left. That wasn't the strange part though. The strange thing was when I was nearing this area, my dream body flipped around and I was now flying feet first with my back towards the ground. I also lost control of my flight, I felt I was being pulled now, towards a dream copy of my room, where I knew, a dream copy of my body was laying there asleep. I felt a strange sensation at the back of my neck, like a tingling agitation. I began to pick up speed and was a little bit confused at the sudden lack of control. I felt a pang of fear, as my apartment appeared and I got closer to me. Angry at this absurdness I yelled out, "No! No fear!" My fear vanished and I overshot myself and landed in the parking lot, which wasn't quite in the right place.

Well that was strange but now I could continue my lucid dream. Or so I thought as I stood there doing nothing. As usual lack of motion caused me to awaken.

What's the deal with this? This is the first time I have lost control of myself when I was lucid. Usually I am the one constant, the only thing that doesn't change erratically. Well my perception of me might change but my point of reference has always been in control by me. This was almost like a subconscious element decided it wanted me to do something else. It was kind of weird. Anyone have some thoughts, ideas or theories about what might be happening here? Also why the random interjection of fear? It seems totally pointless. Are random parts of my brain just throwing different aspects of experience into the dream for no apparent reason? Perhaps there is a reason behind it and one shouldn't fight ones subconscious. Alas, who knows? One thing is for certain, however. I have drunk way too much coffee this morning.

Dream free! Even if yourself tries to stop you!

Ryan:

I got up at 4 this morning myself (you're right, it is hard -- but the payback can be worth the effort) and also had an LD that included my mind fighting back:

I was doing a fairly routine exercise of making things disappear. It seemed like an especially good idea because I was in a storage room of sorts filled with generic objects (lamps, ashtrays, chairs, etc.), and I was fully primed -- obviously, I guess, based on the locale -- for the exercise. But I couldn't make anything disappear! I would focus on an object and it would get blurry for a second, then it would come back. Eventually frustrated, I tried other stuff, like leaving the room through a wall, changing the scene, and flying around. All worked fine, but when I went back to the storage room I still couldn't make things disappear. Finally I gave up and woke up.

Or at least I thought I did. After lamenting my failure for a few minutes, and discussing with my wife my idea that maybe the context of the storage room needed to stay intact, I glanced at the digital bedside clock and noticed that it said 13:47 -- and my clock does not display military time. I rolled my eyes and became lucid again, but did more fun things the next time around to avoid the frustration of that storage room.

Maybe it has something to do with 4 am?

The best of dreams, regardless the time,

Peter